Green faces holiday blues

Monday

Dec 27, 2010 at 8:25 AM

As impressive as the Boston Celtics' 14-game winning streak was, considering the injuries they'd endured throughout, now will come the real concern: Will they suffer yet another instance of the post-holiday blues?

TIM WEISBERG

As impressive as the Boston Celtics' 14-game winning streak was, considering the injuries they'd endured throughout, now will come the real concern: Will they suffer yet another instance of the post-holiday blues?

That's been the case over the last few seasons, as the Celtics haven't exactly burned their brightest once the yule log has been snuffed out.

In 2007, the first season of the new Big 3 era, Boston didn't have to work on Dec. 25. They won seven in a row following Christmas, as part of an overall nine-game winning streak that started before the holiday. It was part of a record 29-3 start that saw the Celtics go 30-5 before losing two in a row for the first time all season. They finished 66-16 en route to the NBA Championship.

The next season, however, saw the start of the Christmas Day Ice Job. The Celtics started off 27-2 and put up a franchise-best 19-game winning streak heading into the holiday. However, they fell to the Lakers on Christmas, 92-83, and then lost six of their next eight.

Boston did turn things around briefly, winning 12 straight between mid-January and early February before the Lakers ended that streak too, 110-109, in overtime at the Garden. Just a few games later, Kevin Garnett suffered the knee injury that would eventually end his season and the Celtics' hopes for a title repeat.

The circumstances were a bit different last season; the Celtics beat the Magic on Christmas Day, 86-77, to improve to 23-5. All seemed good in Shamrock World, until they proceeded to lose 13 of the 22 games between Dec. 27 and the All-Star break.

Boston played .500 basketball over the last 54 games of the season as injuries took their toll and the focus shifted to getting everyone healthy for the playoffs.

"The only reason we went on a slide, we had our whole team hurt," Celtics coach Doc Rivers said last week. "It's not like we started playing bad, we started playing injured. We never really got healthy completely. Then we made the conscious choice to shut bodies down."

The approach worked as the Celtics rolled through the playoffs before coming up a victory short, losing Game 7 of the finals to the Lakers.

This year, the Celtics got off to yet another impressive start, going 23-4 before seeing their 14-game winning streak with a loss to the Magic on Saturday.

The Celtics had their worst shooting performance of the season — just 34.6 percent from the floor. Ray Allen went 3-of-13 and Nate Robinson, starting in place of the injured Rajon Rondo, was 2-of-15. Boston obviously missed Rondo's ability to run the offense, and depth in the post proved costly in the loss.

"When you've been throwing the dice for this long, they're going to bring the cooler over and sit him at your table, and he's going to cool you off," said Garnett, likening the win streak to a hot shooter at a craps table. "We got the cooler (on Saturday)."

Wearing the color of the Grinch, the Celtics did their best to try to steal Christmas away from the Magic.

After Orlando jumped out to a 13-0 lead to start the game, Boston battled back to eventually get up by as many as 12 points. However, they failed to score any points in the final 3:20 of the game as the Magic closed it out on a 15-1 run and the Celtics looked like the kid who asked for a Playstation 3, and only gets socks and underwear.

The question now is whether or not that look will last into the New Year.

The past few seasons, the post-Christmas slide has been fueled by a tough West Coast road swing. This time around the schedule isn't as tough. The Celtics got a two-day break after Christmas and return to action Tuesday night in Indiana, followed by a trip to Detroit on Wednesday. They return to Boston for a New Year's Eve matinee against New Orleans on Friday to kick off a stretch of 11 of the next 14 being played at the Garden.

The flip side of the schedule is that the Celtics will play 11 games before getting they next get two days off in a row, which comes on the weekend before their Martin Luther King Day rematch with the Magic.

No one's really sure exactly when during that stretch Rondo will return from a left ankle sprain, and it's unlikely guard Delonte West (broken wrist) or center Kendrick Perkins (knee surgery) will return before the end of January or early February.

"If we can get healthy, we're not concerned," Rivers recently said of another post-Christmas funk. "If we can't, we're always concerned."

Needless to say, high among the Celtics' holiday wish list was a speedy and full recovery for all the injured parties. Even as they've shown to be one of the best teams in the NBA, they're still not sure how they stack up to the rest of the league.

"I don't know," said Rivers, who might not get a real idea until after All-Star Weekend in mid-February. "We don't have our team, really. Record-wise, we're great, but as far as getting better and progressing as a team, that's my concern."

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.